The Worst Fast Food Chain Sliders Come From The Brand That Invented Them

Whether you're on a road trip or just don't feel like firing up the grill, if you're in the mood for sliders, you're probably angling to make a pitstop at a restaurant, perhaps even the one that invented the food itself: White Castle. Before you set your sights on the fast food chain's signature medieval-style exterior, we'd recommend satisfying your craving elsewhere.

We won't say White Castle's sliders are necessarily bad, it's just that there's nothing memorable about them at all. When we ranked seven chain restaurant sliders, White Castle's came in dead last. The slider is the same as it was 100 years ago, with the small meat patty, bun, onions, and pickle. But as our reviewer notes, "It's simply a matter that, with all the advances in burger technology we have made as a society since the 1920s, this particular slider no longer wows."

That's a bummer. It would be like if Ford no longer made a quality car, or if Crock-Pot somehow forgot how to make a good Crock-Pot. One way other restaurants have added a little extra flavor to their sliders is by serving them with special sauces. This isn't the case with White Castle, but if you're intent on eating there, you'd probably do well to add a few more ingredients to the restaurant's basic slider. Try the Double Cheese Slider or the Bacon Cheese Slider. The Crispy Chicken Slider has also received good reviews.

Some of our favorite kitchen appliances and the most delicious foods we eat today wouldn't exist without the ingenuity of their inventors. A small cooking vessel called a Crock-Pot changed kitchens forever when it was patented in 1940, four decades after the first hamburger in the United States was created at Louis' Lunch — a small lunch spot that still exists today in New Haven, Connecticut.

And that brings us to the hamburger's scrappy, smaller cousin: the slider. The story goes that the first slider served in the U.S. came in 1921 from Billy Ingram, the founder of White Castle, which also happens to be the first fast food restaurant. With just $700, Ingram launched the fast food chain and sold the small, square burgers for five cents each. Several years later, White Castle's sliders became so popular that Ingram began "selling 'em by the sack."

More than a century later, White Castle is still going strong as a regional fast food chain, with nearly 350 locations across 15 states. And while most people might know White Castle for its iconic sliders — a movie was even made about the restaurant — let's just say the quality of these little burgers just doesn't hit the mark anymore. In terms of flavor and creativity, too many other chains have taken White Castle's invention and made it much better.

When it comes to other chain restaurant sliders, our top three proved to be the Kona Grill sliders, Chili's Big Mouth Bites, and the Yard House classic sliders. You can't go wrong with any of these. But when it comes to White Castle, you'll probably be fine taking a pass on these little burgers.